Q & A Table of Contents
How Can I Get More Tuition Assistance From My Company?
From: Chris, Anaheim, California
Question: The company I work for has a very limited tuition reimbursement plan ($1500). I have worked with my company for nine years and have been taking classes for the last few years at community college. I have always paid for my own education but I have now graduated to a University and the classes are approximately $450 per unit. The $1500 the company offers barely puts a dent in my expenses. Any ideas on how I can ask the company to bend the rules for me? Or for that matter, increase the tuition reimbursement for the whole company.
Response: It sounds as if you have put yourself in a reasonably good spot regarding your proposal that your company offer more help with your anticipated tuition bills.
You should prepare yourself with a total of how much you have spent thus far on your education. In addition, it could be useful to figure out how your education since you began this job has yielded increased productivity that has benefited your company.
Your next task should be to do some homework: When was the $1500 limit set? How much has the cost of tuition increased since then? For example, if tuition has doubled since the $1500 figure was decided upon, it is not unreasonable to suggest that doubling the tuition allowance would just be keeping up with costs.
Find out what kinds of tuition reimbursements are offered by similar companies in your market area. If your company is more generous than others, that's worth knowing. If it is less generous, that can strengthen your approach.
If the company raises the reimbursement, how much might it cost them? To figure this out, you need to learn how many employees use the reimbursement every year -- and again, you should also try to find out what kind of contribution a better educated group of employees makes to the company's success.
With this information in your 'back pocket', develop a series of questions to ask the relevant folks at your company to learn how they view employee education reimbursements from a corporate perspective. Are the reimbursements offered to keep employees happy? committed to the company for the long term? provided in order to raise the skill level of the workforce?
Once you have a better understanding of the interests of the company, then you can respond with one or more proposals based on the other information you have gathered. If you listen closely to them, you should be able to offer suggestions that they will find appealing -- and hopefully you'll end up with more money available for your education.
Good luck,
Steve
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